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Wednesday, April 15, 2009

WSU CSNAR Profile of Organic Agriculture in Washington State

A few months ago I posted some information regarding the recent release of the latest USDA Agricultural Census data. Well now I want to present you with some cool and interesting data from the WSU Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources 2008 profile of organic crops in Washington state report. Here's a link to the actual report:

As I mentioned in my previous post on the USDA Census, one of the most significant pieces of data is related to the number of organic acres under cultivation in Washington state relative to total organic product farmgate sales. Washington State ranked 18th in total acres (64,830) managed for organic production nationally. However, the state was second in the nation for organic product farmgate sales value ($159.8 million) behind California ($656.8 million). Now if you look at the WSU report you'll see some individual county data. Although Clark, Cowlitz and Skamania are grouped together, you'll notice that the total famgate sales went from about $226k in 2004 to about $1.2 million in 2007! WOW!! And this census only takes into account the farms that are certified organic. There are many, many farms that have not paid for the organic label privilege, but still maintain organic standards or better. A number of them are CSAs right in our own back yard.

I said it before and I'll say it again. Agriculture is dead in Clark County? Really? Are you sure?